Unibroue Édition 2004

Formerly brewed at Unibroue (Sapporo)
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Chambly, Canada

Hazy, amber enormous white head, lacing, excellent looking, sweet and yeasty aroma, some lemon, some spice as well, flavor is sweet, yeasty, some citrus and alcohol, leaving a nice tingly feeling on your tongue.

Deep and hazen ochre-orange color with a major tornado of activity within its center. Which unfortunely builds a very billowy head rapidly, even with a slow pour. It takes forever and a day to pour out the entire 750 during a session. Every pour brings a new onslaught of growing foam. Impressive, but waiting for it to crumble is a bit irksome. The huge cap eventually creeps down to a soft, firm foam of speckly, dazzling off-white. Lacing sticks well in very big blobs and strings. Aroma is peppery and vibrant, sharp and full of medicinal spice. Wow, it has a good grab to it, very eager and full of peppery phenols. It tends to calm a bit as it sits (waiting for the head to diminish) bringing forward candish melon and tame citrusy lemon zest. But the spices never quit on this nose while gaining a fevered mustyness. Taste is surprisingly more mellow and easy then antcipated given what the aroma does to the nose. Slightly sweet and citrusy fruity with orange, lemon, and touches of lime. Moderately musty yeastyness with only dashes of the spices and phenols brought out in the nose. Which is a good thing here. Much prefer the fruits over the spices. This is a nice treat that somehow keeps an eagerness about it while cultivating a very nice mild tone masked within a favorable fruity and musty mood. Feel is quite full and ambitious, mild tones to the tongue but jumpy and coating to the palate. It sits and zips, sits and zips, back and forth we go while the musty tones mediate the entire time. Finish fades into a healthy and easy drying finish of slight phenolic heat and partial leftover chewy citrus candy bits. Nicey nice! The 10.5% is barely perceivable and the overwhelmingly calming tone and musty mood makes for a very nice treat, although it takes just as long to drink as it does to pour.. Serve warm - pour very, very slow, and enjoy.

Yeasty and lavender nose - perfumy aroma that I generally don’t like. Hazy orange color, tall foamy head. Sweet candy sugar malt with some vanilla tones. Spicy end. Very effervescent. Complex blend, but overall rather successful. Creamy texture and warming alcohol effect after the swallow.

Pours a lovely cream head. Slight mint in the aftertaste... Nice and warm in the belly. Good thing it’s 40 degrees outside.

Poured a golden orange with a medium sized head and plenty of fine bubbles rising up to the top. Aroma of apples, brown sugar, caramel, spice, and floral hints. Flavor was less fruity than the aroma but still sweet with a spicy dry finish. Medium bodied.

Pours an amber orange, hazy, with visible effervescence. Head is an off-white and rocky with a health, sticky lacing. Aroma is of fruity esters, hops and malt. A peppery tartness hangs in the background. Palate is full-bodied and syrupy with a good fizz around the tongue. Warming sensation as the beer settles in. Flavor is sweet and malty with a tart yeast middle and peppery finish. There is a lingering tart/metallic presence. A good combination of some winning flavors and textures. A well-balanced beer, especially considering the high gravity; full bodied and robust. I’d like to make this review more flowery, but I’m plumb out of adjectives.

Very good stuff. Pours a golden-orange color with a very nice tan head on top. Aroma is fantastic: Sweet malts, clove, cinnamon, citrus, all-spice, pears, nutmeg, and even a little grape. Flavor is not as impressive as aroma, though good in it’s own right. At cellar temp, alcohol dominates, followed by the aroma characters. Very impressive.

Very nice golden orange color and head. Flavor slightly sweet with hints of clove or cinnamon spice. Nice alcohol warmth without being overly apparent. Very good beer.